ISFiT World Tour Southeast Asia #6 Singapore

Monday the 26th of MayTuesday the 27th of MayEarly Monday morning we left Jakarta and dived into a completely different country; Singapore.Today's mission was visiting the National University of Singapore and meeting Yew-Ming Yeap, a student from Nanyang Technological University. He took us to dinner and told us about the student life in Singapore. We were to learn that Singapore is all about rankings and attracting brain power, which in practice means giving out scholarships so bright students from abroad can study in Singapore. Yew-Ming Yeap, who is Malaysian, is among these students.

Yew-Ming Yeap, Elise and Marius Tuesday we got to see a bit more of Singapore, which is a clean city where pretty much everything is the tallest/ biggest/ newest something in the world. It is also a very clean country, and easy to travel in, because you do not have to worry about your behavior. On the walls in the subways there are several prohibitions signs that clearly states what you are not allowed to do, like having a sip of water on the subway.

Marius in front of some of the many famous buildings in Singapore; Marina Bay Sand Hotel and the ArtScience Museum, inspired by a Lotus flower.

Singapore is also a Mecca for banking. The country itself is very transparent. On Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index from 2013 Singapore ranks as the 5th most transparent country in the world, together with Norway. The financial system promotes start up business and investments, and the taxes are low.

Inspecting the banks in SingaporeOur host for the night was Steven , a participant at ISFiT 2009, who told us about his ISFiT-experience and shared ideas on both Singaporean politics and ISFiT with us.